Nominate Now for Crystal Star Small Business Awards

Business members are invited to nominate an esteemed colleague for the Crystal Star Small Business Awards, to receive recognition for his or her business efforts.

The nomination process for the esteemed Crystal Star Small Business Awards for 2011 has begun, and the Tulsa Metro Chamber needs your help to find the rising stars of Tulsa’s small business community.

Each year, Tulsa Metro Chamber’s Small Business Awards honor the best and brightest of small business in the Tulsa area. Business members are invited to nominate an esteemed colleague to receive recognition for his or her business efforts. The awards consist of 10 categories. The Small Business Awards include Small Business Person, Entrepreneurial Success, Small Business Exporter, Young Entrepreneur, and Family Owned Business. The Small Business Champion Awards focus on the advocacy role of each nominee within the specified area without regard to a business ownership and include Financial Services Champion, Home-Based Business Champion, Minority Small Business Champion, Veteran Small Business Champion, and Women in Business Champion.

All nominees must be Chamber members and in business a minimum of three years. All nominations will be considered and reviewed by the Small Business Awards Committee to verify nominees meet award criteria. “The key to a successful candidate is whether or not the nomination package shows that the nominee successfully meets the criteria required for each award,” explains Warren Unsicker, small business program manager for Tulsa Metro Chamber.

Along with Tulsa-area recognition, winners are nominated for state-level awards with a chance to proceed to regional or national.

Nominations will close January 28, 2011. Nomination packages will be due March 25. The awards will be presented at the Chamber’s annual awards luncheon on May 17 at the Crowne Plaza Downtown.

To make a nomination, simply fill out the application available online at www.tulsachamber.com. Businesses can nominate themselves, or you can nominate someone secretly. Either the nominee or the nominator can submit the nomination package.

Nomination packages should include a nomination letter, a narrative explaining point by point how the nominee meets each of the award criteria, reference letters, news clippings, and pictures, all placed in proper binding.  

The Small Business Awards symbolize excellence in the business community. They are awarded to small business practitioners who, in the judgment of their peers, exemplify professional skill and leadership and are considered a champion in their field. “Of the 3,000 members of the Tulsa Metro Chamber, 90 percent are small businesses,” said Unsicker. “The Crystal Star Awards represent the very best Tulsa has to offer.”

Small Business Person

• Staying Power (history of business)
• Growth in employment
• Increase in sales and/or volume
• Innovations of product or service offered
• Response to adversity
• Contributions to aid in community-oriented projects

Entrepreneurial Success

• Must have received assistance in the form of an SBA loan and grown to be a large business
• Staying power (history of business)
• Growth in employment
• Increase in sales and/or volume
• Innovations of product or service offered
• Response to adversity
• Contributions to aid in community-oriented projects

Small Business Exporter

• Increased sales, profits, and/or growth of employment due to exports
• Creative overseas marketing strategies
• Effective solutions to export-related problems
• Demonstrate encouragement of other small businesses to export
• Voluntary assistance to other small businesses entering the export market
• Aids in the creation of export trading companies and/or introduction of unique trading relationships

Young Entrepreneur

• Evidence of success as measured by sales and profits for a minimum of three years
• Increased employment opportunities created by business
• Development and/or utilization of innovative or creative business methods
• Demonstrate entrepreneurial potential necessary for long term business success and economic growth
• A Business Owner/Operator who will have not reached the age of 29 by June 1, 2011 may be nominated.

Family-Owned Business

• Minimum of two generation succession with family member as majority owner
• Minimum of 15 years in business with the employment of family and non-family members
• Same business success growth/success criteria as for the Business Person of the year award
• Voluntary community efforts to strengthen family-owned businesses
  Financial Services Champion
• Assistance given small business in obtaining financing
• Advocate changes in the financial services industry to assist small firms
• Active support for legislation or regulatory action designed to help small firms

Home-Based Business Champion

• Volunteer time to improve the conditions for home-based businesses
• Engage in entrepreneurial training, policy development efforts, or financial or business planning for home-based businesses
• Demonstrated interest in home-based businesses by an owner or former owner
• Measurable accomplishments in advancing home-based businesses, such as adoption of public policy or expansion of a program

Minority Small Business Champion

• Voluntary efforts beyond business/professional responsibilities to advance minority small business interests
• Demonstrate efforts to improve conditions in the minority small business community and not for personal gain
• Volunteers of professional services to the business community in a legal, legislative, managerial, or financial capacity
• Demonstrated accomplishments in advising minority small business groups of opportunities within the overall business community

Veteran Small Business Champion

• Active support for legislative or regulatory action designed to help small businesses
• Evidence of increased business opportunities for veterans as a result of the nominee’s actions
• Advisory activities to improve awareness among veterans’ groups of small business opportunities
• Advocacy of special consideration for veteran-owned small businesses in government policymaking
• Demonstrates success in obtaining support within the community for the establishment of veteran-owned small businesses

Women in Business Champion

• Efforts to increase business and financial opportunities for women
• Legal, financial or managerial assistance provided to enhance women’s business ownership
• Voluntary efforts to strengthen the role of women business owners within the community

 

For more information, contact

Tulsa Metro Chamber

(918) 560-0235

www.tulsachamber.com